Vertical feed mixers are known for use in mixing animal feed prior to distribution to animals. The mixers comprise a hopper within which is located a vertically oriented helical auger. The auger has a lower leading edge that rides along near the bottom of the hopper and is equipped with a plurality of cutting blades provided at discrete locations along the helical edge. The auger is typically powered using the power take off (PTO) of a tractor and is connected to the tractor by a suitable drive shaft. In operation, feed materials having varying characteristics (e.g. long hay, corn silage, soybeans, etc.) may be charged into the hopper and mixed together in any desired proportion. Use of the mixer prevents the animals (typically cattle) from feeding discriminately on select portions of their feed ration by creating a substantially homogeneous feed composition. The feed composition may be varied according to time of year, availability of economic feed materials, etc. The mixer therefore provides farmers with an opportunity to feed livestock economically and consistently, leading to optimized animal weight gain. The mixers are equipped with wheels either a side or front ejection system in order to distribute the mixed feed composition along a feeding trough as the mixer is pulled parallel to the trough. Feed can therefore be easily distributed to a large number of livestock in a feed lot.
Some feed mixers suffer from the problem of wrapping of long stringy feed materials, such as long hay or corn stalks, around the auger shaft. Past attempts to address this problem have included adding a cutting element or knife blade to the leading edge of the auger. However, the cut feed tends to be pushed outwardly against the wall of the feed hopper during this process, resulting in it being cut only once per revolution of the auger. It would be desirable to improve the cutting of the long feed materials to help improve mixing and to prevent wrapping of the long feed materials around the auger. In addition, large bales can sometimes be difficult to cut, as they tend to ride on top of the auger flight rather than being cut by the cutting element. It would also be desirable to provide these improvements while operating efficiently in terms of power consumption.